Fangirl Insanity. Sam being affectionate with Andy at the Penny. Living For Tips — Why Waitresses Put Up With Sexual Harassment. Claudia Chi Ku is a single mother of four who works as a server, food-runner, and bartender at a popular Mexican grill in Los Angeles. Like many in the restaurant industry, Chi Ku faces sexual harassment daily, while averaging just $10 in tips per shift. Customers often ask for her phone number and make suggestive comments while she takes their orders. She tolerates more than she might otherwise because she needs the money.

“You have to respond in a nice way so they don’t feel bad,” she says, “In the end, I depend on their tips – I depend on them being there. ”. “I’d rather have a reasonable wage that I know for sure I can count on, every time I work,” she says. “Some customers leave only a dollar, some don’t leave anything. ”.

A Culture of Harassment. There are more than 11 million restaurant workers in the United States, and many of them have stories similar to Chi Ku’s, said Saru Jayaraman, director of the Food Labor Research Center at University of California at Berkeley and co-director or the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United). The food service industry is notoriously hard on its workers, in part because the federal minimum wage is just $2. 13 for people who earn tips, Jayaraman said. Only seven states have eliminated the two-tier system meaning they have one minimum wage for both tipped and non-tipped workers. Those rock-bottom earnings all but guarantee a climate in which food servers put up with customer harassment just to eke out a living, she said. Unlike what many people might assume, most restaurant workers aren’t serving expensive meals in fine-dining establishments.

Rather, they’re on the front lines in chains like Denny’s, the Olive Garden, and Applebees. Read the full story on Slate. I always thought this was the biggest problem with the restaurant norm of having so much of income reliant on tips. It totally affects women way more.